Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Touring - Jaipur

Our trip to Jaipur was made more difficult by terrible traffic between Delhi and Jaipur. See my previous post on Traffic in India. The people at our hotel said there were other guests coming from Delhi who canceled their travels because of the traffic. We considered that....but did not...

Jaipur: Jaipur is called the "Pink City" because....many of the buildings are redish-pink either due to the sandstone construction or...they were painted pink...

We started our brief tour at the Jaipur Astronomical Observatory (Jantar Mantar), which is quite amazing...very large and accurate astronomical instruments constructed in the 1700s by Maharaja Jai Singh II. We then visited the City Palace and the Palace of the Winds, which is an amazing structure, even though it is only a facade built for women to "hide behind" while observing the activity in the courtyard below.

We finished our visit to Jaipur with a trip to the Red Fort, where, of course, we rode an elephant to the upper level of the fort. This is am amazing structure with many very ornate rooms and decoration. Fort does not have quite the same meaning in India as in the US. It is closer to what the US would call a palace or a castle. the royal family lived in the fort, so the interior is very ornate.

Then back to Delhi and the difficult, long, problem riddled plane flight home.